A few days passed for Viviane while she hid inside the permanent temporary portable office outside of Sound Stage 19 on the Sommet Studios lot. Bastian and Aveline lived there with Viviane, Bastian to protect her and Aveline to protect him from her. Bastian spent most of his time sitting in front of his four large monitors working his mouse and keyboard, plumbing the dark net searching for clues to the hackers who stole the data from the UEN’s National Laboratory. He also kept up with the official news from the UEN controlled media broadcasts as well as un-official news gleaned from clandestine sources. Un-official news by undercover journalists stayed hidden in the anonymous dark net. Only those knowing where to look and how to decrypt the information were able to read or watch this news. This technical barrier meant that the vast majority of ordinary citizens would never read or know the truth, but Bastian was not an ordinary citizen. He was a computer wizard! It was ironic, then, that he used the hacking skills he learned during his military service to hack the UEN’s own network so he could hide in plain sight while going unnoticed by the UEN’s Internet monitors.

Today, Aveline slept on a sofa while Bastian monitored the video feed from an un-official journalist who was live streaming a demonstration march. The video stream came from a camera the journalist hid behind his glasses and inside his hat. The image wobbled around a lot and the sound recorded was horrible to have to listen to since the voices were so garbled it was difficult to understand what anyone was saying. Through the shaky video feed, Bastian caught sight of a building which he recognized as a building on the campus of Renard University. He called for Viviane to come have a look.

“Viviane, have a look at this!” Bastian pointed to one of his monitors which contained the shaky video feed. “Isn’t this happening on the campus of Renard University?”

Viviane came over for a better look, but it was still difficult to see. “What’s this all about?” she asked Bastian.

“People are protesting the Ruling Party’s policy of technology embargo.” Bastian knew what was going on, but Viviane did not.

“Why are they protesting the Ruling Party’s decision? It’s not like we have a choice in those matters. It’s not up to us to decide those issues.” Viviane was as disinterested as Kylian when it came to domestic politics. It wasn’t something ordinary citizens worried about.

Before Bastian could answer Viviane’s question, the video feed showed a glimpse of Kylian! Viviane instantly recognized him.

“Oh my god, that’s Kylian! What’s he doing there?”

“Do you know that person?” Bastian pointed to Kylian on his monitor the next time he crossed into view.

“Yes, I do! He’s a colleague of mine at the National Laboratory when I used to work as a graduate student researcher, but he’s a scientist, not a troublemaker. Why would he be involved in such illegal activity?”

Viviane had not seen Kylian in about two months. She now lived in a different world, one that was so far away from math, science and physics that she had left everyone from that old life behind. Seeing Kylian again, Viviane felt a strong tug from her old life reeling her back to her job at the National Laboratory and the friends and colleagues there which she no longer kept in touch with.

I haven’t talked to Kylian or anyone else from my old job in so long, thought Viviane. I shouldn’t have lost touch with my friends. She tried to soothe her guilty conscience by making an excuse for herself. I’ve been too busy with my modeling career that I just lost track. It’s not like I said goodbye or anything like that.

Viviane saw something on the monitor that made her lift her fingers to her mouth and gasp in surprise. On the monitor with Kylian, a short, cute girl with glasses entered into view and joined him. It was Solene! She shouted something which Viviane did not understand the words to, but then local police officers started swinging fists and batons to break up the crowd. Bastian sat up on the edge of his seat while watching the violence between police and protestor spread to the rest of the crowd. Their signs were torn down or wrestled from their hands. Some who fought back were arrested and hand-cuffed and forced to lie on the ground. Solene ran and hid behind Kylian as a police officer chased her down and tried to arrest her.

Viviane, caught up in the drama, could not help herself from saying out loud to the monitor as if Kylian could hear her. “Kylian, move away! Why are you with that girl?”

But Kylian did not get out of the way. In fact, he stood his ground putting himself between the officer and Solene. The officer pulled out his baton and swung it to hit Kylian right in his upper arm. Whap! Kylian winced in pain from the baton strike and, like the first time he met Solene, she took him by the hand and ran off with him while riot police chased after them. The undercover journalist who had video streamed the entire conflict was punched in the face by another officer which knocked his glasses and the tiny mounted camera from his face and to the ground. The video feed showed a boot stomping on the glasses and breaking the camera lens. A few more seconds of static was displayed, but then, nothing but black could be seen on Bastian’s monitor.

Bastian looked at Viviane and saw that she was worried about Kylian. “I hope he’ll be OK.”

Viviane became mad. “That Kylian can be so naïve sometimes!”

Bastian tried to use logic. “But he was protecting that girl from the riot police.”

That made Viviane even more mad. “And who was that girl he was with anyway?”

Bastian did not have that answer. Rather than risk having two women angry with him, he decided to leave well enough alone.